Care for some freshly squeezed juice with your Botox? Fancy a shiatsu massage
to soothe the nerves before the needles prick?
India's first "Botox Lounge"
opened in Mumbai recently, offering the city's rapidly growing tribe of eternal
youth seekers a spa-like setting where doctors banish signs of age.
"The
lounge doesn't have a trace of a hospital's look or feel," said the venue's
promoter, Dr Debraj Shome.
While Botox and other treatments, including
facelifts and cosmetic surgery, are commonplace in the West, many Indians are
experimenting with these procedures for the first time.
As incomes surge
among India's middle and upper classes, more people are clamouring for beauty
services, including some that would have been inconceivable and unaffordable a
few years ago.
The "lounge" is yet another sign of growing affluence in
Mumbai, India's sprawling financial capital and the hub of the country's
prolific film industry, Bollywood, and its glamour and fashion scene.
Up
until the 1990s, when India began opening up its economy, most beauty treatments
for women were rudimentary at best: a visit to the usually spartan neighbourhood
parlour for a monthly clip and pluck. But things have changed.
Now,
women are spending freely in a bid to boost their confidence and careers.
Professionals, university students, homemakers and women in the public eye have
embraced the new era with fervour and a touch of hedonism.
Botox, with
its promise of youth and rejuvenation, is a growing favourite. Botox users fork
out 9,000 rupees (about $215) for a dose that's effective for up to six months.
Compare that to a regular facial, which costs about 800 rupees.
Upscale
beauty chain Kaya offers Botox treatments in each of its 45 clinics across India
and says about five clients use the service every day, up from a single customer
a day in 2005.
"Though the absolute numbers are still small, the rate of
growth has been very encouraging," said CEO Rakesh Pandey.
Still, there
remains a stigma attached to using Botox, with some women wary about the method
of delivery - an injection - while others are concerned about its long-term
effects.
To help allay fears, Kaya has aggressively marketed the
product, and even threw a Botox-theme party at a ritzy Mumbai restaurant where
guests included some of the city's glitteratti such as television celebrity
Pooja Bedi.
"A lot of people used to go abroad for treatment, now they
are much more comfortable about getting it in India," said Bedi, 36, mother of
two, and an unabashed Botox user.
"But at least we're hearing less about
those lunchtime Botox parties, where women gather and inject each other," she
added.